Chinese Classics · Classic Selections. Miscellaneous from Confucian classics, history, and various schools: Classic Selections

Author: Tan Guoqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: Yao Jituan's compilation of classical prose is divided into thirteen categories. I slightly modified it to eleven categories:
- Discourses
- Lyrics and Prose
- Prefaces and Postfaces
- Imperial Edicts
- Memos and Petitions
- Letters
- Eulogies and Funerary Odes
- Biographies and Genealogies
The first nine categories are the same as Yao's.
- Complimentary Prefaces: Yao included these, but I did not.
- Narratives and Records: I included these, but Yao did not.
- Odes and Eulogies: Yao included these, but I attached them to the lower section of Lyrics and Prose.
- Epigraphs and Inscriptions: Yao included these, but I attached them to the lower section of Biographies and Genealogies.
In village schools, some select Zuo Zhuan for classical studies, and the discerning may mock them. In recent times, a few knowledgeable scholars compiling classical texts no longer go back to the Six Classics, claiming to respect them. However, tracing the origin of classical prose's name, it was born by discarding the parallel prose of the Six Dynasties and returning to the Three Dynasties and the Han Dynasty. To abandon the Classics and seek them elsewhere is like saying that a filial person respects their father and grandfather but forgets their great-grandfather, or that a loyal person says, "I am merely a minister; how dare I know the state?" Is this acceptable?
When I compile this collection, each category must begin with the Six Classics. A small stream seeks the vast sea—it has no room for compromise.
Yao Jituan compiled classical prose without including historical records, arguing that history contains too much to record.